Project 14-1M: Highway Systems Performance
This effort involves development of a congestion monitoring program using the Coalition's vehicle probe data.

State and local transportation agencies have been moving rapidly into performance measurements as a core business practice for several reasons. First, reporting on current conditions and trends is a powerful tool for showing the public that agencies understand the scope of the problem. Second, as agencies increasingly adopt a customer-oriented focus similar to private firms, performance measurement is the mechanism for assessing current practice and identifying areas where improvements need to be made. Third, agencies are being asked by elected officials and the public to demonstrate the benefits of transportation investments. Fourth, the entry of private vendors of travel time data into the market provides great potential for supporting performance measurement. These data provide improved coverage on major highways where detectorization is fiscally infeasible.

Project 13-1M: Performance Measures
The project has two major concurrent tasks. First is a programmatic assessment of the Coalition’s performance. This will focus on how the activities and projects of the Coalition, via its Program Track Committees, have produced results that help achieve the Coalition’s strategic objectives. The assessment will focus on more recent programs and activities. It will include a sample of projects, including multi-jurisdiction ones and some carried out by individual agencies but with the expectation that project lessons would be implemented in other jurisdictions. Results will include identification of performance measures used, outputs, outcomes, and anecdotal evidence of results from all these initiatives. These results will constitute the programmatic assessment.

The second task focuses on the impacts of Coalition collaboration on the performance of the transportation system in the corridor. The goal is to initiate discussion on how the Coalition is contributing to mobility, safety and security, and economic vitality in the corridor. The focus will be on longer distance multimodal travel of people and goods. Key indicators of system performance will be identified, in order to answer such questions as these:
• “What do we want to know about system performance in the corridor?”
• “What do we want to measure about system performance?”
• “What does the public (our customers) want to know about system performance?”

This task will identify ways in which the Integrated Corridor Analysis Tool can be applied to quantifying and modeling the Coalition’s impact on transportation system performance. The task will yield a carefully selected list of key system performance indicators and a game plan for assembling the necessary data and conducting analyses which will ultimately show how the Coalition’s work impacts transportation system performance.

Procurement Agency: Maryland SHA
Project Contact: George Schoener, I-95 Corridor Coalition
Michael Pack 301-405-0722 packml@umd.edu

Project 14-1M:

1. Develop procedures that analyze and display the performance of the highway system relative to the long distance movement of people and freight between significant points of origin and destination in the I-95 Corridor Coalition region, using the data provided under the Coalition’s Vehicle Probe Project.
2. Produce an Annual Report documenting the most recent long distance travel time performance in the I-95 Corridor.
3. Provide recommendations for an ongoing system that can routinely produce travel time performance reports and customized data analyses.

Project 13-1M:

• Measure the results of the Coalition’s programmatic performance (activities, programs, and projects) in terms of measures used, outputs, outcomes, and anecdotes.
• Identify goals, measures, and implementation requirements for assessing the impacts of the Coalition on transportation system performance, with emphasis on longer distance movements of people and goods.
• Identify interface opportunities with the Integrated Corridor Analysis Tool.

Project 12-1P:
The objective was to carry out technical work and provide staff support for meetings on the subject of performance measurement.

View Scope of Work for project 14-1M

Project 14-1M:
As this project progressed, the goals were modified to focus more on the prototyping of a system that would allow users to produce travel time performance reports and customized Vehicle Probe Project data analyses. The end result of this project was the first prototype of the VPP Suite which can be viewed in greater detail at http://vpp.ritis.org/suite/screencast This suite has since become widely used by hundreds of MPOs, DOTs, University Researchers, and Consultants to download and explore billions of probe data readings, travel time estimates, bottlenecks, travel time reliability, and other congestion related data. Note: It is assumed that during the period of performance for this project that incident and work zone data will not be available in a common format for Coalition states. To be usable by the system, these data must be snapped to the analysis network. Therefore, the focus of this effort will be on developing performance measures with Inrix-provided travel time data only. However, we will specify the requirements for including these data in an expanded performance reporting system as part of this project.

Deliverables: The primary deliverable for this project is the Vehicle Probe Suite which can be accessed at http://vpp.ritis.org

Project 12-1P:
Staff provided support services for the Coalition’s annual meeting, for those activities related to performance measurement. Staff drafted and revised scopes of work and budgets for proposed additional project work in years 13 and 14 in the area of performance measurement.

Deliverables:
Year 13 Refined Project Description: Developing a Performance Measures Plan
Proposed Project Idea: Pilot Project to Apply Performance Measures to the Operation of the Transportation System in the Corridor.

Project 12-1P:
The Coalition framed and focused its action agenda in the area of performance measurement for years 13 and 14.

Project 14-1M:
Original Project Budget: $49,998
Amended Project Budget: $139,091.75

Reason for change: Increase in scope.

Project 12-1P:
Original Project Budget: $6,000
Final Project Expenditures: $5,931

Developing a Corridor-wide, Web-based Monitoring System to Assist in Performance Measurements

State and local transportation agencies are rapidly adopting performance measurements as a core business practice to help keep the public informed about the benefits of transportation investments as well as better identify areas where improvements need to be made. The introduction of new, higher quality, wide-area, third-party travel time data provides great potential for supporting enhanced performance measurement activities that were previously unobtainable due to the high cost of detection.

The I-95 Coalition is developing a corridor-wide, web-based visual analytics monitoring system for identifying major bottlenecks, reporting on travel time reliability, and displaying other congestion measures using private sector vehicle probe data fused with agency incident/event data where available. This system demonstrates how states can create a congestion monitoring program using a variety of data sources, with an emphasis on vehicle probe data.

The Coalition is leveraging statewide Inrix probe data (click here to read more about the Coalition’s Vehicle Probe Project) and North Carolina Department of Transportation event data to develop a Wide-area Mobility Measures Visualization and Reporting System. The web-based visual analytics software will be capable of displaying performance measures at the statewide, corridor, and segment levels, and will allow users to view both real-time performance and historical performance at various zoom levels. Statewide congestion measures will be displayed first, and then users will be able to “zoom” into the state to view specific corridors or even specific segments. The website will be highly interactive. Easy to comprehend graphics will depict whether performance is better or worse than historical conditions and by how much. A separate section of the site will display “top-10” lists of best and worst performing roads in any given jurisdiction. Measures available will include Travel Time Index, Travel Time reliability, Hours of Congestion per Mile, Buffer Index, Analysis of Peak Periods, Facility Ranking, and Trend Analysis.

As part of the project, the Coalition also builds on its previous work which identified delay patterns at major bottlenecks. The acquisition of Inrix vehicle probe data now makes it possible to measure performance directly at such congestion points as freeway-to-freeway interchanges and toll facilities. Having established baseline congestion, an ongoing congestion monitoring program based on annual changes in performance at the bottleneck locations can be instituted. Also, the addition of data on congestion influences (day-to-day volumes, incidents, weather, and work zones) can be layered onto the base to understand the reasons why congestion grows or shrinks.

View Bottleneck Performance in the I-95 Corridor (Final Report).